Wallace Adds St. Louis Rams Voice In Effort To "Get America Covered"

Thursday, May 5, 2005

--Rams Participate In Cover The Uninsured Week Community Forum On May 2--

Recognizing that it is a problem that touches millions of families in America, Bob Wallace, Executive Vice President and General Counsel of the St. Louis Rams, was a featured speaker at a community forum held recently in St. Louis as part of Covered the Uninsured Week.

“You may wonder why someone who’s involved in professional sports would show up at a forum to talk about Covering the Uninsured, “ said Wallace in his remarks to an audience made up of health care providers, county health officials, medical school students and health policy experts. “It’s because of the universal nature of this social problem; in one way or another, it impacts us all.”

Wallace said that as a professional sports organization the Rams have a tremendous platform to bring attention to social problems such as the plight of the uninsured. In his speech, Wallace referenced a statistic from the Institute of Medicine that estimates 18,000 adults in America die each year because they are uninsured. Wallace said that for the Rams’ organization, that is a figure that simply can’t be ignored.

He continued with another sobering statistic regarding the disproportionate burden on minorities in this country, citing that 34.3 percent of Hispanics and 21 percent of African Americans report being uninsured. Wallace said, “We need to do everything in our power to help everyone who’s uninsured.”

Wallace concluded his remarks with a pledge to help keep this issue on the public radar and urged everyone to take this problem personally. “We all need to continue to bring attention to the problem and continue to engage in the dialogue,” said Wallace.